March 24, 2008
Scotland

Power giant hopes estates will jump at £30 offer

Energy firm wants to populate windfarm with mountain hares and is offering cash on delivery

A power company is desperately trying to reintroduce mountain hares at its Argyll windfarm – so much so that it is offering local estates a bounty of £30 for every hare they can provide.

Scottish Power Renewables is offering the cash as part of a conservation project at the Beinn an Tuirc site near Carradale, Kintyre.

The 46-turbine windfarm, opened in 2001, covers 3,000 acres and includes 1,100 acres of conifer plantation and regenerated traditional heather moorland, created to increase red grouse numbers.

The regenerated site also boasts a pair of nesting golden eagles and a healthy population of black grouse.

David Macarthur, ecologist at Scottish Power Renewables, said: “We have been looking to reintroduce hares at the Beinn an Tuirc site for a while now and were so keen to get them in at Easter time for the start of the breeding season that we decided to offer a bounty payment to local estates for every hare they can provide.

“Hares haven’t populated this part of the land for a number of decades, but we see them as an important part of our ongoing commitment to develop a sustainable ecological environment at the windfarm site. We have a commitment at all our windfarms to protect and enhance the local habitat.”

Scottish Power Renewables is looking to release around 30 mountain hares on the site and hopes that by next Easter there will be a burgeoning mountain hare population at Beinn an Tuirc.

The Press and Journal

24 March 2008


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/03/24/power-giant-hopes-estates-will-jump-at-30-offer/